In recent years, there have been increasing demands for devices with higher densities and higher integration degrees in the fields of various electronic devices that require fine processing, such as semiconductor devices. To satisfy those demands, formation of finer patterns of wiring etc. is essential. In procedures for manufacturing such semiconductor devices, the photolithography technology plays an important role in the formation of fine patterns.
Further, there has been a demand for higher-density microfabrication of semiconductor packages, interposers, printed circuit boards, and the like, as semiconductors have been made to have smaller sizes, higher densities, and higher speeds. Particularly, in recent years, at the time of formation of a storage media fine structure pattern or formation of a biochip nanostructure, high-density microfabrication is more and more strongly required. As a mass-production means to satisfy such a technical demand, the nanoimprint technology has been studied in recent years.
The nanoimprint technology has been developed by applying a pressing method using a metal mold to the nanoscale technology, and involves a nanoscale mold processing technique for performing molding by pressing a mold with minute concavities and convexities against an object to be processed. By the nanoimprint technology, patterns with a width of several tens of nanometers can be formed. Compared with an equivalent processing technology using an electron beam, the nanoimprint technology has the advantage that a large number of patterns can be molded at very low costs.
In the nanoimprint technology, the use of near-field light has been suggested. Generally, in the nanoimprint technology, a mold with concavities and convexities is pressed against a substrate, on which a light-curable resin is applied, and exposed to ultraviolet to cure the light-curable resin. Since the mold that is pressed against the light-curable resin is exposed to ultraviolet, there is a problem in that the mold releasability is low when the mold is removed from the resin after it is exposed to ultraviolet.
Furthermore, it is required to improve the adhesion between the template and the substrate when transferring the ultrafine pattern. Thus, it cannot be said that a sufficient study has been performed in the optimization of pattern forming method.